Gay couple marries via Skype

Posted November 15, 2010 - 05:37
by
Emma Woollacott

A gay couple has made legal history by getting married via Skype - neatly circumventing Texas' ban on same-sex marriages.

Mark Reed - a board member of LGBT group GetEqual - wanted to marry his partner of ten years, Dante Walkup, in their home town of Dallas, rather than force friends and family to travel to another state.

So the couple visited Washington DC, where same-sex marriage is legal, and registered for a license which was sent to them by mail. They were then able to marry in Dallas, using a Skype link to Washington where the marriage was officiated by Sheila Alexander-Reid.

"The reason we wanted to do it this way is because we wanted to have a wedding here in Dallas with our family and friends," Reed told the Dallas Voice.

"It was very important that all of our family came. It was the first time they actually met, even though we’ve been together 10 years. If we had to go to DC, there’s no way we could have had the people there who we wanted to be there."

In the event, the couple had about 80 friends and family present at the wedding, with Alexander-Reid appearing on a six foot-by-eight screen.

There is no provision in Texas law against this rather unconventional approach. However, Reed believes that it could theoretically be challenged in court by anyone obsessed enough with what other people get up to in bed.

The couple is now working with lawyers to try and draft statutes that would enshrine the right to e-marriage in law.